Provision Killing Net Neutrality Threatens Must-Pass Spending Bill

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Republican lawmakers have tucked an anti-network neutrality rider into a government spending bill that would block the Federal Communications Commission from enforcing its open Internet rules. The provision is just one of many riders in the financial services appropriations bill currently being hashed out by House and Senate negotiators. But as dozens of these unrelated policy measures are dropped, this one is sticking around -- a fact that is especially troubling to net neutrality advocates, who worry it may make its way into a final must-pass spending bill, known as an omnibus.

The federal government is currently running on a stopgap funding measure, which will run out on Dec 11. If Congress doesn't reach a new agreement, the government will shut down. Rep Barbara Lee (D-CA), a member of the House Appropriations Committee, said that Republicans are "trying to use a procedural backdoor to supersede the [Federal Communications Commission] and ignore the nearly four million Americans that submitted public comments concerning the FCC’s Net Neutrality rulemaking."


Provision Killing Net Neutrality Threatens Must-Pass Spending Bill